Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2006. / Principal faculty advisor: Kevin Kerrane, Dept. of English. Includes bibliographical references.

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Archival data of unrestricted and restricted gift card transactions was compared with national level consumer spending data from both the U.S. and Canada to investigate the similarities and differences in purchase pattern. The objective for this comparison was to investigate the motivational power of unrestricted gift card compared to cash rewards, restricted gift card and other hedonic tangible incentive. Through results interpretation, the data supported the hypotheses that people perceive and use unrestricted gift card as a cash carrying medium rather than a tangible reward. A restricted gift card that is hedonic by design constrains its recipients to hedonic purchase and removes the guilt and eliminates the justification process. The results also suggested that the elimination of justification seems to be associated to not only the hedonic dimension of goods/services but also transaction size.

Archival data of unrestricted and restricted gift card transactions was compared with national level consumer spending data from both the U.S. and Canada to investigate the similarities and differences in purchase pattern. The objective for this comparison was to investigate the motivational power of unrestricted gift card compared to cash rewards, restricted gift card and other hedonic tangible incentive. Through results interpretation, the data supported the hypotheses that people perceive and use unrestricted gift card as a cash carrying medium rather than a tangible reward. A restricted gift card that is hedonic by design constrains its recipients to hedonic purchase and removes the guilt and eliminates the justification process. The results also suggested that the elimination of justification seems to be associated to not only the hedonic dimension of goods/services but also transaction size.

As the commercial business is getting more and more active, along with the living standard of Taiwanese people improved, consumers not only care about the quality of products, but also emphasize the spiritual side they can create. Therefore, packing gifts with ribbons has changed the quality of people¡¦s life and molded their dispositions unobtrusively. There is a saying that ¡§the tailor makes the man¡¨, and it goes the same with gift packing. Besides, gift packing has become a media for an enterprise to sell its products in a more creative way. This study tried to explore the influence of ribbon gift packing on the behavior of consumers through the emphasis on the concept of creativity, uniqueness and refinement. This study utilized E. B. M. consuming behavior model, taking as an independent variable the consuming behavior of the consumers buying gifts packed with ribbons and tacking as dependent variables the demographics variable and the life style variable, and it came up with a research framework and a hypothesis. Besides, the study used purposive selection form the consumers buying gifts packed with ribbons, and the data would be verified through statistical methods. The study found that the factors of the life style of the consumers in Taichung who buy gifts packed with ribbons includes fashion pursuing, independence and confidence, life efficiency, social experience, stereotype, and egoism. Through factor analysis, those consumers are divided into four groups: traditional value group, fashion trend group, highly independent group and experimentalist group. There are noticeable disparities among each group in terms of ages, monthly salary, education levels and vocations. The consumers in each of the groups behave differently on their consuming behaviors. The noticeable differences are shown in need cognition, information searching, evaluation of schemes, purchasing and results. The seller can do some adjustments on the strategy of marketing combinations according to these five factors.

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This study investigated the behaviour of re-gifting using both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Re-gifting is the gift-giving behaviour of giving a gift that was previously given to you, to another with the pretence that you purchased the gift. The qualitative phase used semi-structured interviews to uncover an initial understanding of re-gifting behaviour from participants’ selected using purposive sampling. The main findings arising from this phase showed that re-gifters used three main factors to determine when it is appropriate to re-gift. These three factors, relationship, occasion and gift were used as the basis of the conceptual framework. This framework was then analysed using an online experiment with the use of vignette techniques which was the focus of the quantitative phase. The study focused on understanding what influences individuals decisions to re-gift. The main factors of interest were how the gift, occasion and relationships involved influenced re-gifting intentions. Re-gifting attitudes where analysed using the factors gift-giving attitudes, previous re-gifting experiences and frequency of re-gifting. A total of 211 responses were collected from Web users from around the world. The study suggests that re-gifters are influenced by the relationships involved and the type of gift, not the occasion. Re-gifting attitudes can be influenced by previous re-gifting experiences. This study has numerous practical implications, more specifically for retailers and charity organisations. This study adds major contributions to both gift-giving and disposition literature and introduces the area of re-gifting. Future research in cultural differences, gender differences and re-gifters versus non re-gifters suggested.

In a time of fierce global competition, where an immense amount of commercial messages reaches consumers around the clock and in every conceivable context, companies constantly seek to find new ways to reach out with their product. One way to do so, that has increased in popularity in recent years, is the use of gift bags. A gift bag may contain samples, miniature products and even products in full size, as a rule from several different brands, which the recipient receives free of charge. The gift bag is typically distributed at some form of event, such as store openings, fashion shows, theme parties and the like, and the receiver of the gift bag can then evaluate the content without any obligation to purchase. The ambition of the companies that choose to participate with their products in a gift bag is, of course, that the recipient will find their products satisfactory, and ideally, that he or she will continue to consume the brand in the future. There are numerous scientific research contributions related to the use of free samples, but very few that concern the gift bag, where a collection of samples from different sources and brands appear. The ambition of this study is to investigate how the conditions change when a free sample is exposed to competition from samples from other companies. The study has a qualitative approach, and consists of interviews with companies that use, or have used, gift bags as a marketing channel, along with an interview with a focus group consisting of people with experience of participating in various events where gift bags occur. The study concludes that marketing through the use of gift bags can have several positive effects for the participating brands. These are, for example, increased brand awareness and an increase in sales. However, it is of importance to evaluate the competing brands participating in the gift bag, as well as the context in which it will be distributed. The study shows that the size of the sample is of importance, since the receiver tends to notice more voluminous samples over smaller ones. Also, the presence of more established brands can have a positive effect on less well-known brands, as their credit will enhance the other participating products. It is important to note that this is only true for samples that are not of the same product category. If this is the case, they will instead be in direct competition with each other.

Some Calvin commentators assert that Calvin argues for the sole view that, in the Father's eternal plan of election, the nature and scope of saving union with Christ is limited to a particular number of the elect. The nature of saving union with Christ is actualized for the believer, by the gift of faith, through a sovereign operation of the Spirit. Prior to this gift of faith, men and women are deemed sinners and excluded from God's salvific work in Christ. Other Calvin commentators assert that Calvin argues that in the Incarnation, God established a saving union between Christ and all humanity. Prior to the illuminating work of the Spirit, in the work of salvation, men and women were embraced by the Father, once and for all, in the person of Christ in virtue of the Incarnation. This thesis argues that, in unfolding the nature of our redemption, Calvin presents both views of our saving union with Christ inconsistently. In his Christological themes, he argues that men and women were savingly united, once and for all, with Christ. This is argued in his presentation of our union with Christ's Incarnate Priesthood, with the Irenaean notion of recapitulation and in his understanding of faith as an acknowledgement of the objective reality of the Father's benevolence toward us in Christ. However in looking at the divine initiative as he presents it from the human response, with his pneumatological insights, Calvin argues that the union which God established is solely between Christ and believers. This is actualized through the gift of faith which is selectively granted to a particular number of the elect. Calvin presents us with an ambiguity as the nature of how we have been savingly united with the person of Christ. In the light of this inconsistency, we go further and work out a resolution beyond Calvin's conception by looking at the theological methods of Karl Barth and Thomas F. Torrance. These two theologians provide a much more consistent approach in unfolding the nature of our redemption in the light of the Incarnation which Calvin grasped but failed to develop.

This thesis discusses the gift in terms of presence and interpretation using varied examples of image that form a visual culture. It contextualises the term "giftness" by analysing its use and our socio-cultural understanding of its function as it relates to the gift process. The hermeneutic processes attached to both the gift, and gifting, are multifarious and require examination of moments of instability present in the act of interpretation and meaning. The gift relationship is juxtaposed against the relationship between image and reader/observer to highlight the abstract quality of the gift and its inherent instability that exists within gift interpretation in general. The fundamental structure and unity of the gift, as is based upon relations between subjects, helps to identify and analyse systems of power and subjectivity developed in terms of investment in order to emphasise the complexities that arise through inter-subjective relations, particularly gift exchange, and those between subject and image. Certain theoretical models help to exemplify and illuminate this thesis, predominantly post-structuralist and psychoanalytic theories. The gift’s condition of instability is further examined in terms of discursive formation and function, looking at how the gift is enunciated so that one can recognise a gift and giving, and acknowledge its problematic status. The relationship between subject and image is investigated to see if we are able to read this investment as a gift relationship within the context of giftness, that is when giftness operates as an instable and challenging element to discursive exchange in visual mediums such as film, painting, television, art and photography. An examination of the gift aporia in this thesis is directed towards a subject’s investment in the image. What transpires between subject and image is akin to what circulates between giver and receiver, on the basis of investment. On this basis, the present configuration of giftness is utilised in terms of the image.